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Behavioral Study of Obedience

Description: Milgram is most famous for his controversial Obedience Study, performed at Yale University in 1961. He was inspired to perform this study by the defense commonly used at the WWII Nuremburg War Criminals Trials, that the Nazi officers and guards implementing the Holocaust had just been “following orders.” Milgram’s Behavioral Study of Obedience tested the extent to which random American civilians could be convinced to inflict pain upon their fellow citizens when ordered to do so by a perceived authority figure. The results of this study horrified the psychological community, the general public, and the study participants themselves once the true nature of the study was explained.
This study was one of the driving forces behind the creation of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to review proposed scientific experiments using human subjects, and approve or veto their implementation.Show more

"Professor Bloom provides an introduction to psychological theories of morality. Students will learn how research in psychology has helped answer some of the most central questions about human morality. For instance, which emotions are ""moral"" and why did these moral feelings evolve? What factors guide our moral...

"Professor Bloom provides an introduction to psychological theories of morality. Students will learn how research in psychology has helped answer some of the most central questions about human morality. For instance, which emotions are ""moral"" and why did these moral feelings evolve? What factors guide our moral judgments? And what factors predict when good people will do bad things?
00:00 - Chapter 1. Kin Selection, Cooperation and Moral Feel..."Professor Bloom provides an introduction to psychological theories of morality. Students will learn how research in psychology has helped answer some of the most central questions about human morality. For instance, which emotions are ""moral"" and why did these moral feelings evolve? What factors guide our moral judgments? And what factors predict when good people will do bad things?
00:00 - Chapter 1. Kin Selection, Cooperation and Moral Feelings
23:07 - Chapter 2. Moral Reasoning and Moral Judgments
38:46 - Chapter 3. Milgram's Work in the Context of Morality
46:19 - Chapter 4. Two Forces for Evil, Two Forces for Good
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses
This course was recorded in Spring 2007."
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